The present disclosure, in some embodiments thereof, relates to sanitizing and/or sterilizing items and, more particularly, but not exclusively, relates to sanitizing food utensils, such as kitchenware, dinnerware, food storage containers, liquid-holding containers, and other items used with products suitable for human consumption.
Sanitation may include the hygienic means of promoting health through prevention of human contact with the hazards of wastes. For example, sanitation may refer to the adequate treatment of food-contact surfaces, such as surfaces of eating utensils, food packages, and the like, by a process that effectively destroys vegetative cells of microorganisms of public health significance, and substantially reduces numbers of other undesirable microorganisms, without adversely affecting the product or its safety for the consumer.
Sterilization is a process that eliminates, removes, or kills all forms of life, such as transmissible agents (e.g., fungi, bacteria, viruses, spore forms, etc.) present, for example, on a surface. Sterilization can be achieved, for example, by applying the proper combinations of heat, chemicals, irradiation, high pressure, and filtration.